GM Dejan Antic to coach The Manly Chess Club

key to success is learning the endgame

Press Release

The Manly Chess Club has hired Australia’s leading player, Grandmaster
Dejan Antic, to coach its members.

Club president Chris Dimock said the appointment would “add to the
armoury of our players” in matches against other Sydney clubs and be an
attraction for new members.

Antic, 39, who won the Australian Open Championship in Sydney this
month, is one of only two active international grandmasters in Australia
and is a registered trainer with the world governing chess body FIDE
(Federation Internationale des Echecs).

Antic, one of Serbia’s top players before moving to Australia in 2006,
believes the key to success is learning the endgame before studying
opening tactics and strategies.

“There are so many good young players in Australia, but they don’t want
to learn the endgame,” Antic said. “So I say, I’ll show you how to win
in 60 moves instead of 20, and you’ll win more often.”

The Manly Chess Club meets every Monday night at the Manly-Warringah
Leagues Club and Antic will be conducting coaching sessions for the next
three weeks, with a view to extending on a more permanent basis, Mr
Dimock said.

Antic’s initial application for a resident’s visa was refused because
the Australian government does not recognise his teaching skills, even
though the world chess body does. With his wife and two children still
in Serbia, Antic has appealed to the Immigration Review Tribunal with a
petition signed by a host of Australian chess players who want him to
stay and the support of his local member of Federal Parliament.